19 Of The Most Important Immigration Stories Of 2018

Immigration continued to be a tumultuous issue under the Trump administration in a year that saw systemic family separations, deaths at the hands of Border Patrol agents, and changes to the nation's asylum system.

The separation of 1-year-old Mateo (left, in yellow, with his father at the border in 2017) by immigration authorities and the ordeal his parents endured was a sign of things to come for hundreds of families in 2018.

While smaller caravans have been organized as far back as 2008, the size of the March caravan attracted the ire of President Trump, which tried unsuccessfully to stop the caravan from reaching the US border by pressuring the Mexican government to disband it.

The federal agency in charge of processing citizenship shuttered all of its offices at US Army basic training locations, putting up another roadblock for immigrant recruits who were promised a fast track to citizenship in return for their service.

Never before had the organizers of a group of Central Americans seeking asylum in the United States faced such opposition from a president. It was a lesson in the consequences, in the age of Trump, of getting the attention you thought you wanted and the double-edged sword of media coverage.

US authorities temporarily shut one of the world's busiest border crossings, after hundreds of migrants from Central America evaded a phalanx of Mexican police, crossed a small river, and marched down a side street in front of a pedestrian crossing.

The Department of Housing and Urban Development hasn’t announced a formal policy denying FHA loans for DACA recipients, but lenders tell BuzzFeed News that’s the guidance they’re getting from officials.